A two-sided B2B platform for industrial automation — from prototype to scalable MVP

The challenge

The Norwegian automation market is fragmented. Industrial companies considering robotics or automation projects must navigate a market full of small system integrators, varied suppliers and inconsistent documentation. The result is a pre-investment phase loaded with uncertainty — and good integrators struggling to reach the right prospects.

RoboConnect AS had a prototype that demonstrated the concept, but it did not cover what was needed to go live with paying customers:

• Role-based access for four distinct user types (industrial company, system integrator, supplier, R&D) with different permissions and visibility.
• Anonymisation of projects so industrial companies can validate market interest before revealing themselves.
• Payment flow for match fees, contract reporting and revenue sharing — ready for accountants and auditors.
• An architecture that holds up for global expansion, not only the Norwegian pilot.

Approach

WOLLUM is building the MVP from scratch on a stack chosen so RoboConnect can scale beyond Norway without a rewrite — and so they can take over operations themselves once the MVP is delivered.

A stack with a clear foundation

• Next.js on Vercel for frontend and serverless backend — global edge distribution from day 1.
• Supabase (Postgres + Auth + Row Level Security) for database and role-based access — security enforced at the database level, not just in the application layer.
• Prisma for schema and migrations — a version-controlled data model.
• Stripe for match-fee payments — turning PSP, invoicing and reporting into a standard flow.
• Resend for transactional email — traceable delivery and simple template management.

Five phases, fixed price, full handover

Delivery is structured as five defined phases at a fixed price. That gives RoboConnect predictability on cost and time, and it gives WOLLUM clear delivery focus per phase. Final handover transfers all source code and associated accounts (Vercel, Supabase, Stripe, Resend) to RoboConnect AS — no lock-in to WOLLUM.

Role-based architecture from day 1

Instead of starting with one user interface and bolting on roles later, we designed all four roles in parallel — industrial company, system integrator, supplier and R&D. The unlock mechanism, anonymisation and payment flow have different requirements per role, but share the same data model and the same RLS policies in Supabase.

Outcome

The MVP is in delivery and pilot-ready in 2026. The numbers below reflect scope and architecture choices, not operational metrics — they will be updated after the pilot run.

• A pilot-ready MVP from role registration to contract reporting.
• An operational admin dashboard for RoboConnect's own running of the platform (match approval, customer support, financial reporting).
• Stripe integration for match fees, ready for both Norwegian and European payments.
• Full ownership transfer of source code and accounts at final delivery.
• An architecture designed to scale beyond Norway without rewriting core functionality.

Sources

• Brønnøysund Register Centre (brreg.no) — company registration for RoboConnect AS.
• Supabase Row Level Security documentation (supabase.com/docs/guides/database/postgres/row-level-security) — reference for the security architecture.
• Stripe Connect documentation (stripe.com/docs/connect) — reference for the two-sided payment model.
• Resend transactional API (resend.com/docs) — reference for email delivery.
• Norsk Industri (norskindustri.no) — context for the Norwegian automation market.
• WOLLUM internal delivery specification (shared on request).